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Movie Trivia Questions
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Movie trivia is the round with the widest reach. Almost everyone has seen enough films to have an opinion, which makes it good for mixed groups and quietly dangerous for anyone at the table who insists they know cinema.
The questions here stay on films that were genuinely widely seen rather than festival obscurities, and they lean on facts that can be checked rather than matters of taste: who directed what, which studio made which animation, which film won which award and in what year. The set runs from silent cinema and the first Academy Awards through to recent Best Picture winners, so no single generation at the table owns the whole round. Every question carries a short note, which is often the part people remember afterwards.
Classic Hollywood: movie trivia questions
In The Wizard of Oz, what colour are Dorothy's slippers in the film?
Answer: Ruby red EasyThey are silver in the original book; the film changed them for Technicolor.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is set largely at what kind of business?
Answer: A motel MediumHitchcock shot it cheaply in black and white using his television crew.
Casablanca is set in a city in which country?
Answer: Morocco MediumCasablanca is Morocco's largest city; the film was shot in California.
What was the first feature-length film with synchronised dialogue?
Answer: The Jazz Singer HardReleased in 1927, it carried only a few spoken sequences among its songs.
In Citizen Kane, what turns out to be the meaning of 'Rosebud'?
Answer: A childhood sled HardThe object appears only in the film's closing shot.
Which 1939 film follows Scarlett O'Hara through the American Civil War?
Answer: Gone with the Wind EasyGone with the Wind won eight competitive Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the ceremony held in 1940.
Which 1952 musical stars Gene Kelly and is set in Hollywood during the switch to sound films?
Answer: Singin' in the Rain EasyCo-directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, it was only a modest hit on release and grew in reputation afterwards.
Which Alfred Hitchcock film shows a California coastal town attacked by flocks of birds?
Answer: The Birds EasyReleased in 1963, The Birds was adapted from a Daphne du Maurier story, as Hitchcock's Rebecca had been.
Who played Dorothy in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz?
Answer: Judy Garland EasyGarland received a special juvenile Academy Award for her performances that year.
Which 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade was John Huston's directing debut?
Answer: The Maltese Falcon MediumIt was the third screen version of Dashiell Hammett's novel and the first to become a classic.
Who starred opposite Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot?
Answer: Marilyn Monroe MediumBilly Wilder directed the film, which is set mostly in Prohibition-era Florida.
Marlon Brando won his first Best Actor Oscar for playing a dockworker in which 1954 film?
Answer: On the Waterfront MediumElia Kazan directed the film, which won eight Academy Awards in total.
Which 1927 film won the only Academy Award ever given for Unique and Artistic Production?
Answer: Sunrise HardThe category was dropped after the first ceremony, leaving Wings as the sole recognised Best Picture winner.
Which director co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Chaplin, Pickford and Fairbanks?
Answer: D. W. Griffith HardThe four formed the company to control the distribution of their own films.
Which 1953 film was the first released in the widescreen CinemaScope format?
Answer: The Robe Hard20th Century Fox introduced CinemaScope to lure audiences away from television.
Directors and studios: movie trivia questions
Who directed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
Answer: Steven Spielberg EasyIt was released in 1982 and stayed in cinemas for more than a year.
Who directed The Godfather?
Answer: Francis Ford Coppola MediumHe was in his early thirties and had to fight the studio over the casting.
Which director is known for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill?
Answer: Quentin Tarantino MediumHe worked in a video rental shop before his first feature.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was directed by whom?
Answer: Peter Jackson MediumAll three films were shot in his native New Zealand, largely back to back.
Who directed the 1927 science fiction film Metropolis?
Answer: Fritz Lang HardThe German silent film was made at the Babelsberg studios near Berlin.
The late-1950s French film movement of Godard and Truffaut is known as what?
Answer: The New Wave HardIts directors favoured location shooting, small crews and lightweight cameras.
Who directed Seven Samurai and Rashomon?
Answer: Akira Kurosawa HardSeven Samurai was later remade as an American Western.
Which director's films include Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List?
Answer: Steven Spielberg EasySpielberg released Jurassic Park and Schindler's List in the same year, 1993, and won his first Best Director Oscar for the latter.
Who directed the 2010 film Inception?
Answer: Christopher Nolan EasyInception won four Academy Awards, all in technical categories such as cinematography and visual effects.
Who directed The Shawshank Redemption?
Answer: Frank Darabont MediumDarabont adapted a Stephen King novella and later filmed another King story, The Green Mile.
Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Answer: Stanley Kubrick MediumKubrick's only competitive Oscar was for the film's visual effects.
Which studio produced The Godfather?
Answer: Paramount Pictures MediumParamount also produced the two sequels, released in 1974 and 1990.
Which Hollywood studio was founded by four brothers in 1923?
Answer: Warner Bros. MediumHarry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner incorporated the company in April 1923.
Who directed Leon (1994) and The Fifth Element (1997)?
Answer: Luc Besson MediumBoth were French productions shot largely in English with international casts.
Who directed the 1948 Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves?
Answer: Vittorio De Sica HardThe film received an honorary Academy Award before a regular foreign-language category existed.
Which Swedish director made The Seventh Seal and Persona?
Answer: Ingmar Bergman HardThree of Bergman's films won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a landmark of which movement?
Answer: German Expressionism HardDirected by Robert Wiene, it used painted, distorted sets to reflect its narrator's state of mind.
Who directed the 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin?
Answer: Sergei Eisenstein HardIts Odessa Steps sequence remains a standard teaching example of montage editing.
Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 by which producer?
Answer: Carl Laemmle HardZukor built what became Paramount, while Mayer ran MGM for decades.
Oscars and awards: movie trivia questions
Which film won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?
Answer: Shrek MediumThe category was introduced at the 2002 ceremony.
Which film features Hannibal Lecter opposite Clarice Starling?
Answer: The Silence of the Lambs MediumIt swept the five main Oscar categories at the 1992 ceremony.
Which country produced the film Parasite?
Answer: South Korea MediumBong Joon-ho directed it.
Which actor played the title role in Forrest Gump?
Answer: Tom Hanks MediumHe won the Best Actor Oscar for it, his second in consecutive years.
The film Gladiator is set in which empire?
Answer: The Roman Empire MediumRidley Scott directed it and it won Best Picture for 2000.
Which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: Wings HardIt took the award at the first ceremony, held in 1929.
Which non-English-language film first won the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: Parasite HardIt won for 2019, more than ninety years into the awards.
Which was the first film to win all five main Academy Awards?
Answer: It Happened One Night HardIt took picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay in 1935.
Which film festival awards the Palme d'Or?
Answer: Cannes HardVenice gives a Golden Lion and Berlin a Golden Bear instead.
Alfred Hitchcock never won Best Director. Which of his films won Best Picture?
Answer: Rebecca HardProducer David O. Selznick collected the award for 1940, not Hitchcock.
Which was the first talking picture to win Best Picture?
Answer: The Broadway Melody HardIt won for the 1928-29 awards year, the second ceremony.
Which actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Gandhi?
Answer: Ben Kingsley HardAttenborough directed the 1982 film and won Best Director for it.
Meryl Streep won her first Academy Award for which film?
Answer: Kramer vs. Kramer MediumShe won Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and later Best Actress for Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady.
Which film about Elizabethan theatre won the Best Picture Oscar for 1998?
Answer: Shakespeare in Love MediumIt beat Saving Private Ryan at the ceremony held in March 1999, a result still debated by film fans.
Which was the first colour film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: Gone with the Wind HardIt won at the ceremony held in February 1940, for the films of 1939.
Which film won Best Picture for 1941, beating Citizen Kane?
Answer: How Green Was My Valley HardJohn Ford also won Best Director for it, the third of his record four wins.
Animation: movie trivia questions
In The Lion King, what is Simba's father called?
Answer: Mufasa EasyScar, his brother, is the film's antagonist.
In Finding Nemo, what kind of fish is the title character?
Answer: A clownfish EasyReal clownfish shelter among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was made by which studio?
Answer: Disney EasyReleased in 1937, it was the first full-length cel-animated feature.
The Frozen films are set in a fictional kingdom named what?
Answer: Arendelle EasyIts design borrows heavily from Norwegian stave churches and fjords.
In the Toy Story films, what kind of toy is Woody?
Answer: A cowboy doll EasyBuzz Lightyear is the astronaut of the pair.
The Minions appear in which film series?
Answer: Despicable Me EasyThey were popular enough to be given their own spin-off films.
Which animation studio was co-founded in Japan by Hayao Miyazaki?
Answer: Studio Ghibli MediumIsao Takahata co-founded it with him in 1985.
The 2001 animated film Shrek was made by which studio?
Answer: DreamWorks Animation EasyShrek was adapted from a 1990 picture book by William Steig and was DreamWorks' first big animated success.
Which animated film about a rat who wants to be a chef is set in Paris?
Answer: Ratatouille EasyRatatouille won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for 2007.
In Toy Story, what is the name of the boy who owns Woody and Buzz?
Answer: Andy EasyAndy passes his toys on to a girl named Bonnie at the end of Toy Story 3.
Which 2001 Studio Ghibli film follows a girl named Chihiro who works in a bathhouse for spirits?
Answer: Spirited Away EasySpirited Away won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards ceremony held in 2003.
Wallace and Gromit were created by which British animator?
Answer: Nick Park MediumPark's Aardman films, including The Wrong Trousers, are made with stop-motion clay animation.
In which decade was the stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas released?
Answer: 1990s MediumReleased in 1993, it was directed by Henry Selick from a story and characters by Tim Burton.
Which Pixar film centres on a small robot left to clean up an abandoned Earth?
Answer: WALL-E MediumWALL-E won Best Animated Feature for 2008, Pixar's fourth win in the category.
Which 1988 Japanese animated film directed by Isao Takahata follows two siblings in wartime Kobe?
Answer: Grave of the Fireflies HardIt was released in Japan on a double bill with My Neighbor Totoro.
The 1926 feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger used which animation technique?
Answer: Silhouette cut-outs HardIt is the oldest surviving animated feature film, made in Germany over three years.
Which animator patented the rotoscope technique in 1917?
Answer: Max Fleischer HardFleischer's studio later produced the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons.
Franchises and blockbusters: movie trivia questions
Which film series opens each entry with a scrolling text crawl set in a distant galaxy?
Answer: Star Wars EasyThe first film was released in 1977.
Which film is set aboard a liner that strikes an iceberg in 1912?
Answer: Titanic EasyIt was released in 1997 and shot largely in a purpose-built tank in Mexico.
Which film series follows a young wizard sent to Hogwarts?
Answer: Harry Potter EasyEight films were made from the seven novels, the last book split in two.
Which number is James Bond's code name?
Answer: 007 EasyThe double-0 prefix marks an agent licensed to kill.
The Hunger Games films were adapted from novels by which author?
Answer: Suzanne Collins EasyThe first novel was published in 2008.
In The Matrix, which colour pill does Neo take?
Answer: Red MediumThe choice has since become shorthand well beyond the film.
Which film introduced the character Indiana Jones?
Answer: Raiders of the Lost Ark MediumIt came out in 1981, from a story by George Lucas.
Which actor plays Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films?
Answer: Johnny Depp EasyDepp was nominated for Best Actor for the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, released in 2003.
In the Rocky films, in which US city does Rocky Balboa live and train?
Answer: Philadelphia EasyThe steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art became a tourist stop because of the training sequences.
The 1984 comedy Ghostbusters is set in which city?
Answer: New York City EasyThe team's headquarters was a real working firehouse in Lower Manhattan.
Which actor played Neo in The Matrix?
Answer: Keanu Reeves EasyWill Smith has said he turned the role down in order to make Wild Wild West.
Which hobbit does Elijah Wood play in The Lord of the Rings trilogy?
Answer: Frodo Baggins EasyWood played Frodo across all three films, released between 2001 and 2003.
In Jurassic Park, the dinosaur park sits on an island off the coast of which country?
Answer: Costa Rica EasyThe fictional Isla Nublar lies off Costa Rica's Pacific coast in both Michael Crichton's novel and the film.
In the Superman films, what is the name of Superman's home planet?
Answer: Krypton EasyThe 1978 film with Christopher Reeve opens with the planet's destruction, as the comics had since 1938.
The Bourne spy films were adapted from novels by which author?
Answer: Robert Ludlum MediumLudlum's The Bourne Identity was published in 1980, 22 years before the Matt Damon film.
Which actress plays Ellen Ripley in the Alien films?
Answer: Sigourney Weaver MediumWeaver was nominated for Best Actress for Aliens (1986), a rare nomination for a science fiction role.
In which year was the first Star Wars film released?
Answer: 1977 MediumIt opened in May 1977 and was later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope.
Which was the first James Bond film, released in 1962?
Answer: Dr. No HardSean Connery starred in the first Eon production, adapted from Ian Fleming's sixth Bond novel.
Behind the camera: movie trivia questions
The mechanical shark used on the set of Jaws was nicknamed what?
Answer: Bruce EasyIt broke down so often that the shark barely appears in the finished film.
The Godfather was adapted from a novel by which author?
Answer: Mario Puzo MediumHe also co-wrote the screenplays for the films.
Which 1902 short film by Georges Melies depicts a voyage to the Moon?
Answer: A Trip to the Moon HardMelies was a stage magician before he turned to filmmaking.
Which brothers held the first commercial film screening in Paris in 1895?
Answer: The Lumiere brothers HardTheir cinematographe both filmed and projected, and was light enough to travel.
Which composer wrote the scores for Star Wars, Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
Answer: John Williams EasyWilliams has won five Academy Awards, the first for adapting Fiddler on the Roof in 1971.
On a film set, what is the director of photography responsible for?
Answer: Camera work and lighting EasyThe director of photography, also called the cinematographer, decides with the director how each shot is lit and framed.
In film-making, what does a film's 'score' mean?
Answer: Its original background music EasyA score is composed specifically for the film, unlike a soundtrack of existing songs licensed for it.
Who composed the strings-only score for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho?
Answer: Bernard Herrmann MediumHerrmann scored several Hitchcock films, including Vertigo and North by Northwest.
In film production, what is a storyboard?
Answer: A sequence of drawings planning the shots MediumStoryboarding was developed at the Disney studio in the early 1930s and spread to live-action films.
On a film set, what is the gaffer in charge of?
Answer: Lighting MediumThe gaffer is the chief lighting technician and works under the director of photography.
Which cinematographer won his first Academy Award for Blade Runner 2049 after 13 earlier nominations?
Answer: Roger Deakins HardDeakins won a second Oscar two years later for 1917.
Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker is the long-time collaborator of which director?
Answer: Martin Scorsese HardSchoonmaker won editing Oscars for Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed.
Who composed the scores for the 1960s Dollars trilogy of westerns?
Answer: Ennio Morricone HardMorricone's only competitive Oscar came for The Hateful Eight in 2016, nine years after his honorary award.
The stock sound effect known as the Wilhelm scream was first recorded for a film in which decade?
Answer: 1950s HardIt was recorded for Distant Drums (1951) and named after a character in The Charge at Feather River (1953).
Which visual effects company did George Lucas set up in 1975 to make Star Wars?
Answer: Industrial Light & Magic HardILM went on to create the effects for Jurassic Park and many later blockbusters.
Answer key
- Ruby red
- Bruce
- Star Wars
- Mufasa
- Titanic
- Harry Potter
- A clownfish
- Disney
- Arendelle
- A cowboy doll
- 007
- Suzanne Collins
- Steven Spielberg
- Despicable Me
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Shrek
- Red
- Quentin Tarantino
- The Silence of the Lambs
- South Korea
- Peter Jackson
- Tom Hanks
- A motel
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- The Roman Empire
- Studio Ghibli
- Mario Puzo
- Morocco
- Wings
- The Jazz Singer
- Parasite
- A childhood sled
- It Happened One Night
- Fritz Lang
- The New Wave
- Cannes
- Rebecca
- Akira Kurosawa
- A Trip to the Moon
- The Lumiere brothers
- The Broadway Melody
- Ben Kingsley
- Gone with the Wind
- Steven Spielberg
- Johnny Depp
- DreamWorks Animation
- Philadelphia
- New York City
- Ratatouille
- Keanu Reeves
- Singin' in the Rain
- Frodo Baggins
- Costa Rica
- Christopher Nolan
- Andy
- Krypton
- John Williams
- Camera work and lighting
- Its original background music
- Spirited Away
- The Birds
- Judy Garland
- Frank Darabont
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- Bernard Herrmann
- Stanley Kubrick
- Nick Park
- 1990s
- Robert Ludlum
- Sigourney Weaver
- Paramount Pictures
- Warner Bros.
- Luc Besson
- Shakespeare in Love
- The Maltese Falcon
- Marilyn Monroe
- On the Waterfront
- A sequence of drawings planning the shots
- Lighting
- 1977
- WALL-E
- Roger Deakins
- Martin Scorsese
- Ennio Morricone
- 1950s
- Industrial Light & Magic
- Vittorio De Sica
- Ingmar Bergman
- German Expressionism
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Gone with the Wind
- How Green Was My Valley
- Carl Laemmle
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Silhouette cut-outs
- Max Fleischer
- Sunrise
- D. W. Griffith
- The Robe
- Dr. No
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full movie list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
Tiebreaker questions
Closest guess wins. Read one out when two tables finish level.
In which year was the first Academy Awards ceremony held?
Answer: 1929 year The ceremony took place in May 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, honouring films from 1927 and 1928.
How many minutes long is Casablanca (1942)?
Answer: 102 minutes The theatrical release runs 102 minutes, which is why it is often used as a model of tight storytelling.
In which year was the first Cannes Film Festival held?
Answer: 1946 year A 1939 edition was cancelled by the outbreak of war, so the first festival ran in September 1946.
Common mistakes in movie trivia
- Alfred Hitchcock won an Oscar for directing.
He was nominated five times and never won Best Director. Rebecca won Best Picture, but that award went to producer David O. Selznick.
- Citizen Kane won Best Picture.
It lost to How Green Was My Valley for 1941 and took only one award, for Original Screenplay.
- Tim Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Henry Selick directed it. Burton created the story and characters and produced the film.
- The Shawshank Redemption won Best Picture.
It received seven nominations and won none. Forrest Gump took Best Picture for 1994.
- Walt Disney made the first animated feature film.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first hand-drawn cel-animated feature, but Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed had appeared in 1926.
- Saving Private Ryan won Best Picture.
Spielberg won Best Director for it, but Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture for 1998.
Running this round at a quiz night
Spread the round across eras on purpose: two or three questions each from before 1960, the 1960s to 1980s, the 1990s to 2000s and the last fifteen years, so no single generation runs the table. The most common dispute is the Oscar year, so always say which you mean: 'Best Picture for 1994' means the film year, 'at the 1995 ceremony' means the event. Release years also differ between the UK and the US, so name the country or accept either when a film straddles a New Year. Accept alternative titles where a film was renamed. Keep the tiebreakers for genuine ties only and take the closest guess without penalising overshoots.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to have seen the films to play?
No. Every question is multiple choice with four options, and the correct answer appears as soon as you pick. Plenty of players learn the film exists from the question itself.
Are these movie questions spoiler-free?
Mostly. A couple of questions touch famous twists that have been common knowledge for decades, such as the meaning of Rosebud. Nothing here gives away a recent release.
Can I use these movie trivia questions for a party?
Yes, freely. The full list with the answers marked is printed below the game, so you can read them aloud from a printout without anyone needing a phone.
Not in a quiz mood?
The question games are a different kind of round: no right answers, just prompts you read out and argue about. Would You RatherNever Have I EverTruth or DareThis or That